For 82 years, the fate of U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Charles C. Palmer Jr. was written only in the stark ledger of a World War II mission log: 31 out of 37 B-24s lost.
On June 8, 2026, those 82 years of waiting ended. Surrounded by family, military honors, and descendants of his family and friends he fought beside, the top-turret gunner was laid to rest at Sarasota National Cemetery in Florida.
Palmer was killed in action on Sept. 27, 1944, during the Kassel Mission—a notoriously brutal air battle over Germany where his unit, the 700th Bombardment Squadron, a part of the 445th Bombardment Group, was swarmed by enemy fighters after straying off course. His remains, recently identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, were finally repatriated, fulfilling a decades-old promise to his family.
“It really is an honor to be able to serve as a casualty assistance officer for such an important mission as this,” said U.S. Army Master Sgt. Rory Kamenicky, Florida National Guard non-commissioned officer, who presented Palmer's posthumous awards, including the Purple Heart. “The mission of never leaving a fallen soldier stands true. Even after 82 years, no one has forgotten.”
The ceremony provided an end to generations of grief for the friends and family left behind who had been stuck in a state of unknowing for so long. Randy Fleuriet, whose uncle 2nd Lt. Porter M. Pile, died in the same aircraft and whose remains were identified by DPAA in late 2022, with his internment taking place at Arlington National Cemetery on Oct. 31, 2023, traveled to Florida to stand with Palmer's family. He recalled the shared agony their families endured.
"We knew, in all likelihood, that they had been killed in action. But when that phone call comes...those emotions of grief well up and they pour forward," Fleuriet said. "I'm here today to say I stand shoulder to shoulder with this family in their loss, in their grief, but, in a sense, in their relief, too—to know that Charles Palmer Jr. has been repatriated to his country."
The memorial didn't just unite grieving families; it connected past and present aviators. The legacy of Palmer’s 700th Bombardment Squadron lives on today as the Air Force Reserve’s 700th Airlift Squadron, currently operating C-130H aircraft out of Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga.
During the playing of Taps, a C-130H from the 700th AS roared overhead in a tribute flyover. On the ground, U.S. Air Force Capt. Douglas Trojanowski, 700th AS pilot, representing the modern-day squadron, presented Palmer's family with a POW/MIA flag that had hung in the unit's headquarters for the last three years in honor of their missing WWII brethren.
“They always say it's important to remember where you come from [so that] you know where you're going,” Trojanowski said. “You walk by that flag every day, and you hold the memory of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Today it is a true honor for us to relinquish command of this now to you.”
Representatives from the Kassel Mission Historical Society also presented the family with a shadowbox containing excavated parts from Palmer’s B-24 Liberator, recovered from the crash site.
For Pam Watson, speaking on behalf of Palmer's cousin Bonnie Rolquin, the day was the culmination of generations of faith.
"We believe the prayers of Charles' mother and his wife brought Charles home today," Watson said. "As their letters show their perseverance and the perseverance of the military that Charles served... we celebrate this man."